In the Indiana Spring of 1942, rambling Jake Carpenter sets out for Florida with his family packed like a bunch of Okies into a Model A Ford. He promises a land flowing with milk and honey where they’ll never have to move again.  Disintegration of the family looms as the vows crumble and Jake spirals downward into a quagmire of alcoholism and sociopath behavior, but his family refuses to drown with him.  This poignant story about the survival of a family suffering from poverty and abuse as seen through the eyes of the overwhelmed mother, Ginny, and her children, the sassy Bettyjean, the plucky Jimmy and little sister Kitty, is also a story of love, loyalty and triumph. It is funny, frightening and utterly absorbing as it catapults the reader into a maelstrom of escapades, hazards and heart-wrenching menace of Carpenter family life in the Deep South during World War II and its aftermath.  This story will profoundly change your perspective on what it means to be alive and struggling in an imperfect world, and thankful that times have, indeed, changed.

Awards...

2003 League of Utah Writers Quill Award - Outstanding Nonfiction Book of the Year